There was a populist backlash to the President’s housing initiative last week, with an unlikely leader. A cable-TV commentator known for his rants, Rick Santelli of CNBC lost his cool again when describing the package of mortgage revisions that the Administration hopes will put the housing market back on the rails, stabilizing it and cutting down on foreclosures while keeping as many people as possible in their homes. As if to add some kind of justification to his nonsense, Mr. Santelli turned to the traders on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade for support and used their obedient chorus of catcalls as proof that “average America” didn’t like the President’s plan.
Later, as a guest on Chris Mathews’ HARDBALL, Mr. Santelli went further, advocating that people in trouble simply be allowed to fail. He added, dramatically, that he’d be willing to “bite the bullet” and let both of his neighbors go into foreclosure if necessary because he wasn’t planning to sell his home. He would ride out what he considered the small amount of collateral damage to his home or his neighborhood, because he wasn’t planning to sell anytime soon. The next day, on the same program, he began to finally tip his hand when he used the term “redistributionist” to describe the goals of the plan. Mr. Mathews moved in for the kill: it turns out that Mr. Santelli is a Republican who voted for John McCain.
Mr. Santelli engaged in manipulative, insincere populism, and his premise and description of the results were simply wrong.
I’m sure that in the lovely upscale suburbs of New York and Chicago, the million dollar plus homes on large lots could indeed survive several foreclosures without significant hits on property values. The neighborhood probably won’t see an increase in drug havens, increasing street crime, physical deterioration, or other negative results. Investors won’t swoop in to snap up the lavish homes, slap on a new coat of paint, and then stuff them full of tenants who have no ties to the neighborhood and have no real stake in maintaining it. In short, I’m sure that in Mr. Santelli’s neighborhood he could let the country’s housing market go down the toilet without too much discomfort. It makes it very easy for someone in his position to wrap himself in populist rants of “unfairness” to thwart a solution that will mitigate the terrible consequences for the rest of us.
So, Mr. Santelli, since you’ve made it clear you don’t give a damn about the rest of us, why don’t you just go back to your lovely home in your lovely neighborhood, build a very, very, very tall fence, buy lots of assault rifles to fortify the ramparts, and never come out again. I can tell you that the rest of us will not miss you.
